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Star Trek: The Original Series (VHS)
Star Trek: The Original Series has been released on VHS in multiple countries since the technology was developed. US releases In early 1980, directly pursuant the premiere of , Paramount Home Entertainment (then known as Paramount Home Video) released ten selected episodes on the new VHS and Betamax home media formats in the United States, in five volumes of two episodes each as part of their "Television Classics" collection: / , / , / , / , and / . http://www.closinglogos.com/page/Paramount+Home+Media+Distribution http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/early-80s-tos-vhs-tapes.143530/page-5 Released in conjuncture, or rather as appetizers for the in October released The Motion Picture videotape formats, they together are as such the earliest known official (thereby discounting any and all possible previous and illegal so-called " s", the in lore famed Original Series "blooper reels" being a prime example) Star Trek releases in either format, or in any home media format for that matter. A bit puzzling was, that unlike its Motion Picture releases, Paramount did not endow the Original Series releases with catalog numbers or rating indicators. http://tosbldvhs.blogspot.nl/2014/08/the-rental-tapes.html It were these tapes that very shortly thereafter turned up as the first Star Trek productions in the VHS/Betamax rental circuit. In mid-1979, Paramount Home Video hammered out a deal with photo developer/video rental outlet to release 36 titles of their backlog catalog on the new home media formats for the rental circuit, who started to do so from December 1979 onward, thereby becoming one of the very first such rental companies. http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/sreply/1167895/The-Lucifer-Complex-1978#.VzXmW-RrFv0 From March 1980 onward, Paramount gradually expanded the original agreement to 131 titles, and it was only after that occasion that all six available Star Trek videotape titles were added to Fotomat's rental catalog. Fotomat had the Paramount introductory logos, disclaimers and credits on the rental tapes, the ones habitually seen prior to the feature presentation, replaced with their own. http://www.closinglogos.com/page/Fotomat+Video The tapes were additionally packaged in simple die-cut silver cases with black markings and the Fotomat logo on the case. The labels were black with white text. At the time a tape could be either be rented for US$12, or, at a later point in time, – for those customers who had missed out on the initial chance to acquire the Paramount tapes – , bought for a price in the US$40-$70 range, both rather steep for the times. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/FotomatVideo Ever since, Star Trek has been a staple in the rental circuit, until VHS tapes were phased out of existence in the early-to-mid 2000s, preceded previously by their Betamax counterparts over a decade earlier. A special one-off release of (Paramount Gateway Video VHS 60040) occurred in 1982 to tie in with the premiere of . Starting in April 1985, the complete series was finally released in groups of ten over the course of the second half of the 1980s. The tapes were released in simultaneous conjuncture with the US , sharing similarly designed cover art. http://tosbldvhs.blogspot.nl/2014/08/1985-wide-release-ld-vhs-betamax.html Included were both versions of , first with a hybrid of Gene Roddenberry's workprint version and footage from The Menagerie, along with an introduction by Roddenberry produced especially for the VHS release in 1986, and the "All-Color Collector's Edition" of the episode in 1991. The workprint version, complete with Roddenberry intro is available on Volume 40 of the original DVD releases and the TOS Season 3 DVD set. The color version was also released in 1995 on a tape by Paramount with , as part of a four-tape boxed set featuring the pilots for the first four series. Paramount reissued the VHS tapes in 1993 with new packaging and collectible SkyBox International trading cards for each episode. CBS Video Library/Columbia House also issued tapes of the series in 1986, featuring two episodes per tape. For most of the run of the library releases, the introductory volume was and . Paramount fully phased out releases of the series on VHS by the end of the 1990s-early 2000s. UK releases Specific episodes of The Original Series were first released by CIC-Arena Video in the early 1980s. The series in its entirety was released twice in the UK by CIC Video - a two-episode-per-tape release from - , and a three-episode-per-tape release from - . The original releases were deleted on . :Release dates for the original 21 releases are not known. Dates in italics are approximations based on release frequency, where no exact date is available. UK products are normally released on a Monday. Original release The original CIC Video release was continuous, and did not separate out seasons. Consequently, the volume containing the final episode of a season will also have the first episode of the next season. Re-release Each episode in the series features an introduction by either James Doohan or George Takei or Walter Koenig. This edition made use of new transfers of color corrected and cleaned-up footage, at the time called "digitally mastering", originally done four years earlier for the Japanese LaserDisc editions Star Trek: Log 1 - Log 3. Released at the beginning of the DVD age this edition only saw a limited production run, in anticipation of the first DVD release of the Original Series. Box sets and other releases Footnotes See also *''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (CED) *''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (LaserDisc) *''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (Betamax) *''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (DVD) *''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (Blu-ray) Category:VHS releases